Los Angeles City Council to Declare May 16 Amanda “The Lioness” Nunes Day

The City Council is set to declare Tuesday Amanda “The Lioness” Nunes Day in Los Angeles, honoring the UFC’s first openly gay champion.

“Amanda Nunes is an example to young women, women of color and LGBTQ people,” said Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who introduced the resolution to honor Nunes.

“Amanda’s passion, drive, determination and perseverance have shown our young people that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to, if they work hard enough.”

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Nunes won the women’s bantamweight title on July 9 by forcing then- champion Miesha Tate to submit in three minutes, 16 seconds into the first round.

In the first defense of her title, Nunes recorded a technical knockout of former champion Ronda Rousey in 48 seconds on Dec. 30.

Nunes (14-4-0) is scheduled to make her next title defense on July 8 against Valentina Shevchenko (14-2-0) of Kyrgyzstan. Nunes defeated Shevchenko on a unanimous decision on March 5, 2016, the only victory of Nunes’ career that did not come by a knockout or submission.

Nunes was raised in Brazil and began taking karate lessons when she was 7 years old. She started boxing and training in jiu-jitsu as a teenager.

Nunes became a professional MMA fighter in 2008 when she was 19 years old. She lost her first fight, then won the next five, all in Brazil. Nunes made her U.S. debut on Jan. 7, 2011, knocking out Julia Budd in 14 seconds in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nunes said her nickname stemmed from the fact the logo of the first gym she trained at had two lions.

“I was the only female fighter at the gym so my old coach started to call me `Leoa’ for my aggressive style and it stuck,” Nunes said, referring to the Portuguese word for lioness.